準備托福聽力測驗技巧

初期至考前一個月該如何準備托福聽力?

(托福聽力介紹)Lecture、Conversation 機經題型範例與解析

這次的文章標題想必是大家都很好奇的部分吧!其實不管在哪一種英語語言測試,設定考試目標真的非常重要,這個部分會影響你準備考試的有效程度。請先參考下方的概念圖:

設定托福考試目標(Fully background check on your school list)

在托福考試中,成績在申請學校過程中佔了部分的占比,建議學員們在準備托福考試前,要清楚的知道目標學校的申請條件,小編這邊有2017年美國大學的托福成績要求給各位參考:https://www.language-center.com.tw/2017toefl-score.htm
除了成績之外,當然也不要忘記準備台灣學校的在校成績、作品集、推薦信這些文件喔!

托福聽力實力養成:初期至考前一個月

實力養成的部分,初期時建議大家務必為自己創造一個英語學習環境,讓自己隨時都在英文的模式中,可以藉由新聞、廣播、電影或影集等等資源來幫助自己的聽力,尤其對於自己聽力較沒有自信的學員,也建議不要在初期就練習 TPO,這樣不但讓自己信心程度降低,也會讓自己無法再繼續準備下去;小編的過來人心態,語言是個急不來的成果。我們可以藉由 Youtube、VocieTube 或者是 TED Talk 這些線上學習資源來練習進而提高自身的聽力能力以及筆記的部分,試著在課外時間與同學一起觀看影片,記下自己聽到的內容,最後互相用英文討論你聽到了什麼、主講者想表達的是什麼。聽力養成階段到了中期後,可以開始做一些 TPO 練習,一週一次或兩次皆可(不管是菁英模考還是自己的練習題),直到考前一個月,小編就會將每套 TPO 拿出每天練習,考試時間也會完全仿照正式考,或甚至練習用更少的時間完成,不僅讓自己增加臨場感,也幫自己準備在正式考不緊張不害怕。

(註:上圖為小編的托福聽力筆記)

托福機經題型範例解析-Lecture TPO:44 – New Guinea 為例

Listen to part of a lecture in an anthropology class. 【講座播放時間5分16秒】
Professor: So, we’ve been talking about early civilizations, how they developed, and early agriculture. And it’s believed that agriculture arose independently in a few areas of the world about ten thousand years ago, and then spread from those areas to the rest of the world. Those cradles of agriculture include the Middle East, China and Southeast Asia, and parts of the Americas.
Now, for many years archaeologists have speculated that agriculture also arose independently in another center, too – New Guinea, which is just north of Australia, in the South Pacific Ocean. You can see it on this map.
So, it had been assumed for a long time that New Guinea, that domesticated plants and animals, the practice of agriculture, generally, had been introduced from Southeast Asia about 3500 years ago, had come south essentially.
Then in the 1960s and 70s, research was conducted at sites in New Guinea to explore the possibility of independent agricultural development. But unfortunately, the evidence gathered at that time was inconclusive.
For instance, although evidence was found of deforestation, you know, cutting down trees, from at least 7,000 years ago, that is long before we’d thought previously. It was unclear whether the forest had been cleared by farmers to plant fields, or by hunter-gatherers, so they could hunt more easily. And many plant remains like seeds and fruits don’t preserve well in swampy soils, in humid environments like you often find in New Guinea. So really, the proof was limited.
But, recent research has turned up some pretty convincing support. A group of archaeologists returned to a site that had been previously examined, Kuk Swamp, which is in a mountain valley in the highlands of what is now Papua, New Guinea.
Based on their findings, they identified a succession of phases of agricultural development in the wetlands there, with several of these phases predating the earliest known agricultural influence from Southeast Asia.
At the site in Kuk, they used an array of modern archaeological methods to analyze sediment samples from the soil. From the oldest soil layer dating back 10,000 years, they found evidence of pits, stake holes and ditches. Now, these all indicate that crops were being planted. Plants are tied to stakes, and ditches are for..for drainage, a proof of a very early, first phase of agricultural development.
The second phase, which they identify from a higher layer of soil, featured regularly distributed mounds. Mounds were constructed to plant crops that can’t tolerate very wet soil, such as bananas, because remember Kuk is a swampy wetland, and bananas wouldn’t ordinarily grow well there.
And in the layers from Kuk’s third phase, they found evidence of an extensive network of ditches and drainage channels, indicating a further refinement of wetland cultivation. Because they had more advanced techniques than were available to earlier researchers, the archaeologists also were able to identify actual plant remains – micro-fossils in the soil from banana plants, and…and also grains of starch from taro, on the edges of stone tools that date from about 10,000 years ago.
Finding the taro remains were very important, because it meant that it must have been planted there, brought from the lowlands, because taro doesn’t grow naturally in the highlands.
And as for the bananas, researchers also found a high percentage of fossils from banana plants in sediment samples dating from about 7,000 years ago, proof the bananas were deliberately planted, because where bananas grow naturally the concentration of the plant fossils is lower. Bananas don’t naturally grow so densely. As a matter of fact, recent genetic research, genetic comparisons of banana species, suggests that the type of banana grown in New Guinea was domesticated there and then brought to Southeast Asia.
So, not sure where I’m going with this?
Well, usually, we expect to see that certain social changes are brought about by the development of agriculture, structural changes in the society like rapid population growth, different social classes. But New Guinea, it’s largely unchanged. It’s remained an egalitarian and rural society, so what does that tell us about the usual assumption?

老實說小編第一次做 Lecture 題型時,所遇到的問題為:很容易迷失(誤!),Lecture 顧名思義,考試方向較為學術性,audio 將會不間斷播放 5-6 分鐘,一個閃神答案就會消失,加上題目考驗著學員們的整合資訊能力,要聽得懂、做筆記外加作答真的很苦啊!!(聽力筆記如何進行請參考前篇),小編很能理解各位考生的痛苦,不過也不要因為第一時間聽不懂就終止自己的練習,小編這邊為大家整理出在托福 lecture 聽力常出現的 2 個題型!

  1. 主旨題 Purpose Question:主要檢視考生是否有能力聽出 main idea
    舉例 e.g. What is the lecture mainly about?
    A) The spread of early agricultural methods from New Guinea to other cultures.
    B) Differences in the types of crops grown in early centers of agriculture.
    C) Evidence supporting the theory that agriculture developed independently in New Guinea.
    D) Techniques used by researchers to identify farming methods in the earliest centers of agriculture.

    本題答案為 C
    教授開篇指出之前講的早期文明是如何發展的,接著提出考古學家推測農業也在其他地方獨立出現 New Guinea 在澳洲的北部,南太平洋,接下去都是圍繞著此觀點展開。選項 A 中 early agriculture methods 早期的農耕方式是之前討論的;選項 B 作物生長方式的不同在原文中並未被提及;選項 C 用證據證明農業獨立在 New Guinea 發展的理論,與原文意思相符;選項 D 中 farming methods 在原文中並未被提及。
  1. 細節問題 Detail Question:檢視考生是否有能力聽出 supporting idea
    舉例 e.g Why did researchers conclude that the taro remains found near Kuk were a result of farming?
    A. Taro does not grow wild in highland areas.
    B. Taro is a native plant of China.
    C. Taro was only found in a very small area near Kuk.
    D. Taro normally does not grow in wet climates.

    本題答案為 A
    原文提到 taro 芋頭的發現非常重要,因為意味著它已經種下了,來自於低窪,因為 taro 不能自然地在高地生長。選項 A 中 taro 不能在高地區域野生生長,與原文資訊一致;選項 B 中提到的 China 在原文中並未被提及;選項 C 中 taro 僅在 Kuk 附近一小片區域被發現,在原文中未被提及;選項 D 中 wet climates 潮濕的氣候在原文中未被提及,原文討論的是高或低的地方。

以上兩題,你都答對了嗎?講完 lecture 之後,接下來為各位帶到 conversation 對話的部分:

托福機經題型範例解析-Conversation TPO:44 – Disscussion about the Monthly Exhibition
Conversation 的 audio 播放時間大概為 3 分鐘,兩人對話題型說話方式較為口語,但學員們要切記話題的圍繞還是課業、學校生活,因此還是有相當的難度,記得一開始的 Narrator (旁白)是題目的 hint,另外下方小編也列出 Conversation 常見題型!

Listen to a conversation between a student and an art professor. 【聽力時間 2分34秒】
S: Hi, Dr. Morgan, I’m Karen Stern. I met you briefly about a year ago when I was applying to the university. You were on a penal professors and you were talking about the art department.
P: Um, and you now a student here, I guess I said the right thing.
S: Yeah, right now I’m doing the intro courses in the art department, but I’m really interested in painting.
P: Well, I teach several of the painting courses, so I hope to see you in the future.
S: Actually, I was wondering you are in charge of student art exhibitions at the university gallery, right?
P: Right.
S: So I know all the exhibitors are students, but I was wondering how you choose the works to exhibit every month. Is there like a submission process or something?
P: No. There is a submission process, yes, we have a gallery review committee. But we already have our exhibition’s plan for the rest of the school year. Generally our exhibitors are third and forth year students, well into their course work.
S: Oh, well, I guess that’ll be something to look forward to then. Tell me do you show all kinds of paintings?
P: Well actually, we started doing something different with the gallery this year. We are fetching a specific technique each month. Next month exhibition for will fetch drip paintings.
S: Really? Like Jackson Pollock?
P: Ah, so you are familiar with Pollock’s work.
S: Well, sort of, though I’ve seen photographs of it. I know he dripped paint onto the canvas instead of using a brush. I read his stretched out his canvases on the floor of a studio, and he climbed up on a ladder to pour paint, ordinary house paint, from a can onto the canvas.
P: That’s right. That was characteristic of Pollock in the late 40s and what we call his drip period. And the object was to produce a constant and stream paint to create continuous lines. Because as you know, when you use a brush directly on a canvas you get broken lines. So, you like Pollock.
S: Yeah, I do. I like abstract towards in general. There’s a class on abstract art right?
P: Actually I teach that class, and drip painting was one of our themes last year. Some students from last year’s class have continued experimenting with it. They created some incredible pieces, using everything from squeeze bottles to computer control spears.
S: Do they look a lot like Pollock’s work?
P: Well, our goal was to imitate Jackson Pollock. The object was to get students to look at different ways of a planning paint to a canvas. But you don’t have to enroll in a specific course to be invited to exhibit your work. It just has to fit the theme for one of our exhibitions.
  1. 態度意見題 Speaker’s Attitude Question:檢視考生是否有能力理解正反方意見,正反方不見得代表對與錯,而是雙方在對話中可能會出現的討論暗示性引導,我們可以看到 imply 題目中是很常出現的暗示性動詞。
    舉例 e.g. What does the professor imply when he says this:
    A) Students must have taken a course in the technique featured in the exhibition.
    B) Exhibiting in the university gallery is a degree requirement for art majors.
    C) Artwork submitted by a first-year student will probably not be accepted.
    D) The woman should submit her painting soon because the deadline is approaching.
    我們可從對話中發現,學生是第一學年學生,教授也暗示可參展學生為第三、四學年,因此答案為 C。

Student
Hi Dr. Morten, I am Karen Stern. I met you briefly about a year ago when I was applying to the university. You were on a panel of professors and you were talking about the art department.

Professor
Ah….. and you are now a student here. I guess I said the right thing.

Student
Actually I was wondering you are in charge of student art exhibitions at the university gallery, right?

Professor
Right!

Student
So I know all the exhibitors are students, but I was wondering how you choose the works you exhibit every month. Is there like a submission process or something?

Professor
No, there is a submission process, yes. We have a gallery review committee, but we already have our exhibitions planned for the rest of the school year. Generally our exhibitors are third and fourth-year students will into their coursework.


希望小編提供的實力養成方法以及考題解析對大家會有幫助,讓大家早日脫離 TOEFL 苦海(遠目)。


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